The (yet I) Promise

Thank you, Mrs. McKinney and Mrs. Warren. I'll give a special congratulations to Mrs. McKinney. You don't think much about singing on a dry mouth until you have to do it. I've got a reminder of that. I asked an Orville Bumgardner to give a sermonette this morning in Prestonsburg, so rather than do that right after leading songs, I said, I'll take the song leading duties, which the arms worked fine. It's funny, what comes out of the mouth just didn't want to work. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to that. It's interesting, on a day when we're fasting, don't you tend to like the slower songs a little more? It's a little more relaxing. As a matter of fact, it's not even difficult to relate to a sad song. There's another old word for sad song or poem. You call it a lament. We have a book in the Bible called Lamentations. I want to start off with a passage from there. Lamentations 4 versus 4 and 5. It's a place we don't go very often. That's that little book right after Jeremiah, which is the right place to put it, because Jeremiah wrote it after being there at the fall of Jerusalem and seeing basically the collapse and destruction of his nation. But he very poetically but sadly described the state of things in his nation. And I think he might have described a little about how we feel today. Lamentations 4 verse 4 says, The tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them. Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets, and those who were brought up in scarlet embrace ash heaps. We might feel a little bit like that today. But of course we know there's a happy message associated with this day. And as Mr. Call alluded, fasting is as bad as it might make you feel. It also brings a sort of inner joy. I found that inner joy gets a little more joyous as the sun gets lower on the horizon, but that's a different story. Now, I do want to make a note because I'm not doing a study of the book of Lamentations. It has passages of profound encouragement.

But its purpose was to show that before the restoration of blessings and happiness, we need to be well aware of the tragedy. We need to understand the bad that happened first to look forward with full appreciation of what comes afterwards. Now, I say that in the context of the Day of Atonement. This day is known mostly for the fasting. It's the one feature that stands out. And what it represents, it's known primarily for the imprisonment, the future imprisonment of Satan the Devil.

Now, I'm not going to turn right back to Revelation 20 because we just read it, but we know that a powerful angel will come and be given authority to take him and bind him with a chain and put him into some type of abyss, a bottomless pit, as the old King James says, where he will no longer be able to affect the nations. I was reading that this morning. I noticed that one particular part of that says he will be shut up.

And I thought maybe literally as well as figuratively. And of course, even after he has a short function at the end of the millennium, he'll then be put away forever. That's the happy news. But it's good for us to be aware of what happened before. I'd like to turn to Isaiah 14. We're near there. Isaiah 14. And I appreciate Mr. Call not using all the scriptures on this. Actually, I didn't want to make a note. When I said I'd give a short sermon, actually I wrote a short sermon.

I don't have to cut it down to fit. I was really hoping he'd have something a little longer. So Isaiah 14 in verse 12, I want to make the point. This is written in the form of a lamentation. Oh, how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations! And now we get to the why.

For you said in your heart, I'll ascend to heaven. I'll exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farther sides of the north. I'll ascend above the heights of the clouds. I'll be like the Most High. Yet you'll be brought down to Shale, to the grave, to Hades, to the lowest depths of the pit. And those who gaze at you will see you gaze and consider you saying, Is this the one who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms?

And of course, the symbolism will shift back to the human leaders of Babylon. But we look at this often to analyze what we can learn about the angelic being that became Satan. We sometimes forget that it was written in the form of a lament. That's a little more clear in its companion passage in Ezekiel 28. If you want to turn over there with me, that is Ezekiel 28, also beginning in verse 12. Here I don't have to infer or look at the meter or trust scholarship to tell me if it's a lamentation, because it says right here in verse 12, Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre. Now, earlier had been addressing the prince of Tyre, which we believe applied to the human leader.

And this raises the level of the prophecy or of the vision to apply to the one that we know of as Satan. So you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, in the garden of God.

Every precious stone was your covering. The sardius, topaz, diamonds, barrel, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared in you on the day you were created.

You were the anointed carob who covers. Here, this is God speaking. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in all your ways, or perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O covering carob, from the midst of the fiery stones.

Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. So I cast you to the ground. I laid you before kings that they might gaze at you. We'll end there because you might wonder why it's a lament. Isn't it happy news, a joyful thing, that our enemy is cast down? Isn't it good news that he'll be bound and restrained from affecting us any longer? Well, yes, that's very good news. I wonder sometimes if God might have inspired this in the form of a lament, though, because there's still some sadness over what the being that became Satan was.

He was the anointed carob that covers, was at the very throne of God, was perfect and beautiful, but iniquity was found in him. He wasn't made that way. He lifted himself up. He turned himself evil. And I'm sure that made God the Father and Jesus Christ sad. He had to be cast down. But that would hardly be a happy occasion. So it's worthwhile to briefly lament the loss of such a creature.

Not to lament the binding of Satan, but to lament the fall of the anointed carob that covers and lament that it happened all those many years ago. Don't you wish he'd stayed good? How different might have things been? But I only want to begin at that. I wanted to touch at that because, as I was saying, considering and understanding the sadness first can make us so much more appreciative of the joy of what comes after. We're looking forward to the other meaning of this day, of atonement.

The atonement has been made, as Mr. Call said, by Jesus Christ's sacrifice, allowing reconciliation. That's where I want to revisit that idea that I spoke of on trumpets, of a turnaround. I spoke of trumpets as the great pivot, the turning from death and destruction in mankind's history to renewed life and to return to a relationship with God. Now, that was trumpets in God's annual Holy Day plan, atonement follows soon afterwards.

And I would propose that if it's not quite the same turning point, it might mark the coming to awareness that the turn has been made. Think of the awareness that will begin to creep into the minds of those who are alive on this earth surviving into the millennium, after the tribulation, after the great destruction of the day of the Lord, when Satan is put away and he is no longer clouding the minds of people or affecting them.

Think about how they might start to see things differently. And they'll come to be aware that there's a new government and there's a ruler who cares for them and they are going to be given what they need. So I want to move to that, but let's review briefly what state people will be in so that we can consider the dramatic change in their relationship with the family of God.

We'll do well to remember that until the fulfillment of the meaning of the fall holy days, this world has been and it still is, and until Christ returns it will be led and deceived by Satan the devil. We've well established that. As a church, we used to publish a booklet with the title, A World Held Captive.

Some of you might remember on the picture it had a picture of the globe as though it were behind the cages of a cell. And when that came out, I was young enough, I thought, hmm, yeah, he's just trying to make a catchy play on words.

As I matured, I started realizing how accurate and how apt that description really is. We've read in Isaiah 14, 12 that Satan weakens the nations. In Revelation 12, 9, we saw that he's the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. Paul commented further on that. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 3 and 4.

I keep looking around for a glass of water. 2 Corinthians 4.

Now we know the gospel is the good news of God's plan, His way of life, His plan of salvation for mankind that brings happiness. But most people on earth are blinded to it. Satan has veiled it so that they can't see it, they can't understand it, they can't even believe it if they hear it.

People instead believe lies. They believe the lie that he told Eve in the Garden of Eden.

You will not surely die. And thus, people believe that they have an immortal soul.

They believe the wages of sin is not death, but rather that it's some burning torture forever.

Thus, they believe they don't need the gift of eternal life that only God Himself can give.

And through the ages, mankind has refused to accept the revelation of God. Instead, people have trusted in ideas and philosophies that human beings invented. They invented, while under the influence of a powerful fallen angel. And they were completely unaware of this.

That's why I honestly believe that story of an ever-burning hell is because Satan knows he's to be thrown into a lake of fire. That's what he is dreading. He wants human beings to dread it.

Ephesians 2... Let me go back and read. I believe we just read this, but I want to go back and read Ephesians 2 and verse 2 to remind us that he is influencing people. Ephesians 2 and verse 2, "...you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience..." We've likened that in the past to a broadcast. That he's not sending out information or words or music like on a radio station, but broadcasting attitudes and ways of thinking. "...and it's affecting everybody, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others." Now, we don't want to miss the fact Paul is saying, without God's calling, without the Holy Spirit, we're all right there with everyone else, full of lust and sinning, and completely deceived about it. It's important to remember a person who's deceived doesn't know that he's deceived, so they're not willingly choosing to be evil, which is much better than if they were. But that's the state of the world. I want to go back to Psalm 14. Psalm 14, beginning in verse 2. So I said I'm reviewing some of the state that Satan has brought the world to, so that we can look at the awareness that's going to happen when it changes. Psalm 14 in verse 2, the Eternal looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Well, they've all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There's none who does good. No, not one. The Apostle Paul would go, in his writing, would quote from this and add many other citations to it from the Old Testament. I want to go to Romans 3 to pick this up. Romans 3 and verse 10. We'll read it. Well, it's not that long of a passage, but it's a little extended drawing from Psalm 14 and other places to show how bad mankind cut off from God is. Romans 3 and 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They've all turned aside. They've together become unprofitable. There's none who does good. No, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues, they practice deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace they have not known. There's no fear of God before their eyes. And all of this leads together to the ultimate result, which I've alluded to. It's stated a few pages later in Romans 6.23 that the wages of sin is death. The result of living a way of life contrary to God's way leads to death, eternal death. If not for God having a plan, I'll remind you of Isaiah 59, verse 1 and 2, where we read that the eternal's hand is not shortened, that it can't save. Your iniquities separate you from God. That's the general state of mankind. It has been ever since Adam and Eve chose to listen to and follow that serpent that is the devil. Mankind has been taken captive. And mankind needs to be released.

There's more to the story of mankind than that, though. There's a little insertion because we could go straight to Jesus Christ's return. And if we did, the Bible would be a lot shorter.

You can think if you went from Genesis to Revelation, but God wanted to make sure that when he did intervene, people would know that they could only do it right by his power dwelling in them. So God chose to take a group of people, an entire nation, the nation of Israel, and work with them directly. He would give them a set of laws, a government, a way of life that would work, a way that would bring peace and prosperity and happiness. If only they would live by it.

Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 20, and let's see that. Ezekiel 20, beginning in verse 5.

Here God is speaking to the prophet to relay this message. He says, So God wants to give good gifts. But if you look over to verse 13, we see, And there's a twofold meaning there. You could say God's way of life is a way of life. You live in God's law, not just talk about it, but also if you live in them, they bring life. And living God's law brings life. Which if a man does, he'll live by them.

This describes, ironically, I think, punishment even before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land. They didn't even make it across the desert before they'd sinned so badly, God was ready to wipe them out. At one point, he told Moses, Stand back. I'm going to kill all them and start with you. And Moses appealed to God's mercy. He said, Think twice about that. I still suspect in that story if God wasn't to some degree testing Moses because God is merciful without being reminded. And that's a theme I want to revisit shortly. But if we read through the story of Israel over and over again, God gave them another chance, and then another, and another. But studying history and prophecy shows that they, you know, they would fall into sin again and again.

And prophecy shows that God eventually does allow the full effect and results of sin to happen.

I want to turn to Jeremiah chapter 11. I've always been intrigued by this. Jeremiah 11 and verse 14.

They said, God is very merciful and very patient, but there's a time when he says, I'm going to work my plan and purpose. Jeremiah 11 and 14. So after pronouncing punishment, God tells Jeremiah, Do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to me because of their trouble.

You skip to verse 17. For the Lord of hosts who planted you has pronounced doom against you, for the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they've done themselves to provoke me to anger and offering incense to Baal.

I could stop there and we'd say, well, what a story. God tries to show a group of people the way to live. He's patient and merciful, but over and over again, they fall under Satan's deception.

Like all mankind, the story of mankind is that human beings forsake God's way of life.

They plunge into the way of sin, and the way of sin brings suffering and it brings death.

That's the story of mankind, but that's not all the story. Because, of course, we're here. We're here because we have a hope, and we know that there is much more to that story. God's plan doesn't consist only of teaching mankind his way and then having Satan spoil it. No, God's plan accounted for that all along. And to show us that, or to show ancient Israel that, and through them us, he instituted within the ritual sacrificial system a unique ceremony on the day of atonement.

And that day represented two things. Well, you could interpret other things, but two main points, I would say. One is the problem that we've just described. We've been looking at that Satan deceives the world and leads us into sin. The other thing it describes, though, is the solution and what will follow. I'm not going to take the time to read all of Leviticus 16, but if you'll turn there, I'll summarize the most of the story. Leviticus 16, I'm going to begin in verse 21.

But it was each year on the day of atonement, the one day of the year when one man was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies in the temple, the high priest. And that, as Hebrews says, not without blood. He offered a bull to sacrifice for his own sins so that he could become a symbol of Jesus Christ later. And then they were told to choose two perfectly healthy male goats, indistinguishable so much that they'd have to cast lots to see which would play which role.

And if you'll look at verse 21 of Leviticus 16, And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself their iniquities, all their iniquities, to an uninhabitable land, and he shall release the goat into a wilderness.

This symbolizes what is described in Revelation 20 verses 1 through 3. You can read it later. Well, we already read it. Sorry, I've got it written down. You can read it later.

But Satan will be sent into an abyss, and of course later on into a lake of fire and be cut off. Satan will have to take responsibility for his part in our sins, for his leading mankind to say, as a stray. And so this goat that lives represents Satan the devil. But of course, as Mr. Call said, Satan can't pay for our sins. We have an individual responsibility, and the nature of God and the universe that he created requires the penalty to be paid.

But God had a plan for that. Let's look up earlier in the chapter to verse 15.

Speaking still of the high priest, then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people. Bring its blood inside the veil. Do with that blood, as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement. Yes, he'll make the payment for our sins. Now this is a symbol. This live goat symbolizes Jesus Christ. His blood is the atonement for our sins that makes reconciliation possible with him and the Father. He, our maker and creator, died in our place. There are so many New Testament scriptures. I quickly just mentioned a couple that I'm not going to turn to. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3 says very clearly or plainly, Christ died for our sins.

1 John 1 verse 7 says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins.

Now remember, and I'm not going to turn to Hebrews, there's a place where it says the blood of bulls and goats could never remove sin. They were symbols of the blood that could.

This isn't a new teaching for us, but it's important for us to review the understanding that the Holy Days represent and that this Holy Day represents. It's a profound part of God's plan of salvation for mankind. It allows mercy. It shows Satan being put away, taking his responsibility, Jesus Christ paying the penalty for our sins. This gives me an introduced idea. This is what happens when you don't have liquid in your brain. This allows me to introduce a creature that I want to use to symbolize another step in God's plan that I bet you're not already familiar with. This is not from the home office and it's not meant to be heresy or new doctrine. This is just a symbol that I came up with because this creature is the Yeti. The Yeti is a mythological creature said to inhabit the Himalayan mountains, also known as the Abominable Snowman.

I've got a nice picture of him right here. I did this before they took my printer away.

This isn't a Polaroid. I think that's an artist rendering. I've got a Polaroid. This is the Yeti hanging out at a bookstore having a cold beverage.

And of course, many of you are thinking, okay, Frank Dunkel has lost his mind.

The Yeti isn't real, has nothing to do with the Day of Atonement. It's certainly not in the Bible.

Now let me pause there because the Yeti is spelled Y-E-T-I.

Let's double check that. Maybe instead of pronouncing it Yeti, what if we pronounce it Yet-I? The Yet-I. Earlier, we read some prophecies that describe God's punishment on the nations for their sins, particularly on the nation of Israel. But what I didn't read, not yet, is where many of these scriptures are followed with citing of the elusive and mysterious Yeti, or the Yet-I. Let's turn to Jeremiah chapter 4.

Jeremiah 4, beginning in verse 26.

Jeremiah 4 in verse 26, here's a vision that Jeremiah was shown.

Now here, I wondered if I said Yeti will not make a full end.

Well, that might shift things. So I'm making a play on words, but I think it's important for us to notice how many times that's in the Bible. Let's go back to Jeremiah 30, because this symbolizes God not wanting to give vent to His wrath. God is patient and merciful. Jesus Christ wanted to be that sacrifice to pay for our sins because He wanted us to be in His family. Jeremiah 30 in verse 10.

So I might have had to stretch a little to bring the Yeti into the sermon. I think it's worthwhile, though, very worthwhile, for us to pay attention to God's mercy, to His kindness and gentleness that are represented by those two words, Yet-I. I think this is very important, following the worldwide calamity that's encompassed within the meaning of the Feast of Trumpets.

The calamity that prophecy says is coming. And I watched the news yesterday that things are getting worse. But on the Day of Atonement, we remember that the calamity will pass.

Satan will be put away. The world will no longer be held captive. And God will establish His rule over the earth. Peace and happiness will prevail. God will yet work with the people of Israel.

Those surviving in the Millennium will literally be brought back to the Middle East to live in the Promised Land. Later in Jeremiah 30 and verse 17, we'll see that.

I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds, says the Eternal, because they called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion. No one seeks her. Thus says the Eternal, Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob's tents. That's the words meaning I'm going to bring them back from where they were. And have mercy on His dwelling places. The city will be built upon its own mound, and the palace shall remain according to its own plan. Then out of them shall proceed, Thanksgiving, and the voice of those who make Mary. I will multiply them. They will not be diminished. I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Let's turn over another page in my Bible, Jeremiah 31 and verse 33. We'll note the major difference that will occur. It will not only be Satan being put away, with his influence being removed, but then God's influence will take its place. Jeremiah 31, 33. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

After those days, says the Eternal, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. We all know that God's law and his word will be put into our minds and into our hearts through his spirit dwelling in us. That's the way he does it. And we can see that expressed also in Ezekiel 11. I want to turn there. Ezekiel 11, beginning in verse 16.

Therefore, say, thus says the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone. Therefore, say, thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. Then I will give them one heart. I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them. They shall be my people.

I will be their God. Can you imagine the relief of people who've lived through earthquakes, famine, disease, lived through having the sun turn dark and the moon turn to blood, red, through having people die all around them, and all this destruction? They'll have survived the worst time that ever was and that ever will be. But then, they'll gently be guided home.

They will be healed of whatever injuries and sicknesses they have, and they'll be given the peace of mind and understanding that comes from knowing who God is and what He's doing.

As I said, Satan's influence that's clouded mankind's minds ever since that serpent appeared in the garden, that'll be gone. I think we could liken that even to the Day of Atonement. I've been thinking as I've been trying to read scriptures, there's like a fuzziness clouding the mind.

I think tonight, after I get a good drink of water, that's going to be gone. That maybe is just a slight foretaste. Think of all those people out there that when Satan's gone, he's no longer the prince of the power of the air. His influence will be gone. They'll be able to see so much more clearly. But then, on top of that, God will make His Spirit available. They'll be able to understand, and they'll have good teachers. Let's turn to Amos 9.

Amos 9 and verse 13. I'm starting to verge from scriptures dealing with the cataclysm at the end into what we call millennial scriptures. We can consider that a transition for the many that we'll be hearing later on. Amos 9 and verse 13. Behold, the days are coming, says the Eternal, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sows seed. The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with it. I will bring back the captives of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them.

They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land that I've given them, says the Lord your God. Now, as I said, we could go on and go to a lot of scriptures that describe this, but I'm not going to because we've got another festival coming up when we'll spend considerable time reading about how wonderful the world will be when Christ returns and establishes his reign. But one very comforting feature of end-time prophecy is no matter how dire, no matter how devastating the destruction comes, God will always follow up with a yeti, or with a yet I. God will always say, yet I will not make a full end. Yet I will leave a remnant.

Yet I will bring back my people. That was never an afterthought. It's always been part of God's plan. We know, the scriptures are not coming to mind. I believe in Revelation. It speaks of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The plan was there from the very start. First for the nation of Israel, but then for all of mankind who has ever lived. Mankind has been going the wrong direction for thousands of years, but a great turning point is coming. And the fall holy days represent that. They represent a turnaround. The first human beings, Adam and Eve, fell under the influence of an evil fallen angel that we call Satan the devil. And every person who has ever lived has come under that influence. Except for one, he tried with the word who became flesh, but that didn't work. Jesus Christ resisted Satan, and he became a sacrifice to pay for the sins of all people. And one of the goats in Leviticus 16 represents that sacrifice.

Satan will be banished for his role in leading mankind to sin. The other goat in Leviticus 16 represents that. Mankind will change its direction, its very way of life. There will yet be a happy ending. God will yet be our God and we his people. There's not going to be any song of lamentation on that day when that happens. Instead, there'll be songs of praise and songs of joy.